title: [Special pathogenetic forms of hepatitis in old age].
abstract: Although infectious hepatitis (IH) is, at the present time, predominantly a disease of adolescence and young adulthood, when it does occur in advanced age, it is associated with a higher level of mortality due to fulminant hepatitis, and with a more frequently chronic, subicteric and anicteric course. The reasons for this are to be found in a greater viral persistence, with concomitant lowering of the immune defences, secondary diseases, prior diseases of the liver, drug and alcohol abuse. A particularly unfavourable effect on the prognosis is ascribed to the use of corticosteroids in the acute phase of the disease.
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D006506:Hepatitis A / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D006511:Hepatitis B Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D006511:Hepatitis B Antigens
vernacular_title: Besondere Verlaufsformen der Hepatitis im Alter.